'It's still the economy, stupid': Former Obama adviser says Democrats winning on messaging

Maria Cardona is one of the leading political commentators in the US having served as an adviser to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign.

Speaking from her home in Washington DC, Cardona told BreakingNews.ie that the different voices vying for the leadership of the Democratic Party are actually a strength ahead of November’s midterm elections and the 2028 presidential election.

Cardona, who is a member of the Democratic National Committee, said: “It’s actually not weird or bad that the Democratic Party at this point in the presidential political cycle, that there is not just one leader. When you are the party out of power, meaning you don’t have the White House. Currently, we don’t have control of the House of Representatives or the Senate. Even the Supreme Court, the majority of the justices are conservative. So, we don’t have control of the three big branches of government. When that happens, there is a tendency for not just people within the party, but everyone to kind of look at the Democratic Party and say ‘they are in disarray, they are completely dysfunctional’. You can’t see one person coming out as the leader. But that’s okay.”

“I think a very robust, healthy, crowded Democratic primary is going to be wonderful for the party,” she explained.

“It is going to be great for the country and will ensure that the person who ends up winning that 2028 nomination process is going to be the strongest, most battle-tested nominee that the Democratic Party is going to be able to put forward that I am confident will be able to beat whoever the Republican nominee is.”

One midterm candidate who has grabbed attention is Georgia senator Jon Ossoff. He is not afraid to take aim at US president Donald Trump, and comments at a recent rally where he mentioned Trump’s aide Natalie Harp went viral. 

“He doesn’t want to do the job,” Ossoff said at the rally. “He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenceless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”

Cardona said Ossoff has been “on fire”.

She also said he is smart to downplay his 2028 ambitions, with a midterm election in November to win first.

His comments have sparked fury among Republicans, while White House figures were also understood to be shocked. Cardona said the fact his comments appear to have rattled conservatives is proof of a strategy that is working.

However, she said the key element is returning to the economy and how voters are struggling to make ends meet.

“Even though there are people who say his mention of Natalie was gratuitous… he only said her name.

“He didn’t say anything else about her or even their relationship. Everything that came on top of that was from the right, that’s their own baggage. Actually, I think it has been very smart because one of the things that I think voters have been sick of, and I count myself in this camp, about some Democrats is that we always love to take the high road, right? We think we are so morally superior, and I think we are morally superior, but voters can’t really see you that way because then they’re going to say, ‘well, what does all this moral superiority get me if you don’t win?’

“It’s great that you are a good person and I would rather have a good person as the president, but I need somebody who’s going to fight. Especially if your opponent is going to get down in the mud.

“You know… Donald Trump is out travelling the world on his Saudi jet or Kuwati jet or whatever it is with Natalie, while you are struggling to make ends meet. He doesn’t just say it gratuitously. He brings it back to the issue of a culture of corruption. And it’s that culture of corruption that is now really strangling the White House because they have not been able to get above it.”

She added: “Donald Trump demonstrates it every single day. His cabinet demonstrates it every single day. His children demonstrate it every single day. When they’re out there bragging about how much money they’ve made from a crypto company that they created in the Oval Office.

“While the Big Beautiful Bill rips hundreds of millions of voters from health insurance, the Republicans say, ‘well, we can’t afford it’.

“Yet we can give Elon Musk a huge multi-million dollar tax cut. That makes people angry because they see the difference.

“They see what they’re not getting because these millionaires and billionaires and Donald Trump and his family are making too much money. So that gratuitousness works when you tie it back to why does it affect normal everyday Americans?

“The issue of the economy, of affordability, of how Americans are hurting, of how they wake up in cold sweats during the night because they don’t know how they’re going to make ends meet, that will be front and centre. I think what is working for Democrats is that the strands of the other messages that they are using, the culture of corruption, even foreign policy when it comes to the Iran war, they are tying it back to this issue of affordability.”

It’s the economy, stupid.

Cardona recalled fellow Democratic strategist James Carville’s famous “it’s the economy, stupid” phrase, adding that this is still the biggest issue in the United States.

“In elections past, the issue of foreign policy was always one that people would say voters don’t care about that. They never make a decision on foreign policy. It’s one of the reasons why Bill Clinton won in 1992, because George H.W. Bush was very good at foreign policy, was so focused on foreign policy. The first Iraq war had just happened. They were trying to make a case that, ‘well, he kept you safe’… blah, blah, blah.

“It didn’t register for voters… why? Because Bill Clinton was very brilliant at focusing on the issues impacting ordinary Americans. If you recall James Carville, ‘it’s the economy, stupid’. It was the economy back then… it is still the economy now.”

New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is another figure who has been linked with a 2028 presidential run.

The Democratic Socialists of America is a group within the Democratic Party that has been causing huge division due to its far-left policies.

While Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the New York chapter of the Democratic Socialists, she is not in the national organisation and Cardona said she is playing things smart by distancing herself from some of their “whack job 101” ideas.

“Voters don’t give a flying hoot what you call yourself, right? They want to know what you’re going to do for them. And if you demonstrate that you have that fight, that you are going to be a fierce defender for them and their families, that you’re going to offer creative solutions to help them make ends meet, that you’re going to make the contrast between what you’re fighting for and what the Republicans have been offering… you’re going to win.

“I am not a Democratic Socialist. I consider myself a progressive. I don’t agree with every single thing that she [Ocasio-Cortez] might be pushing from a policy standpoint, but she is brilliant at how she is talking about this and how she is positioning herself and how she has actually conducted herself. She has evolved from the moment she got to Congress.

“She came in there like a wrecking ball. Then she put her head down and she worked and she studied and she was prepared. You saw her at these hearings where she was part of the committee and there was no one more prepared than her. She ended up working with back then speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. And she has been able to really demonstrate that she gets it from a political standpoint. Now I think she’s being very smart.

“The National Democratic Socialist of America’s platform is crazy. It is whack job 101. And I am glad that she has distanced herself from it. And everyone who wants a chance to be taken seriously or to win their races, they should walk away from that as quickly as possible as well. It’s fine if you want to call yourself a democratic socialist, but have your own policies.”

Maria Cardona has been impressed with Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. Photo: Jason Alpert-Wisnia/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

Cardona also cited Abdul El-Sayed, who is the Democratic nominee in the Senate election in Michigan. 

“For example, Abdul El-Sayed, who is our Democratic nominee for the Senate. A progressive, but he also talks about how he’s a capitalist. He is not a democratic socialist of America, which I think is smart.

“That way it allows him to talk about whatever progressive policies he wants to talk about and push for. That gives him credibility with the democratic socialists if that’s who he’s going for. It also gives him room to have credibility with the people in the middle. If we really want to win across the country, we have to get some disaffected Republicans to support us.”

California governor Gavin Newsom is arguably the leading contender for the Democratic nomination in 2028.

Cardona said his direct attacks on Trump have worked, as they have for Ossoff.

However, she said the key for the midterm elections, and the 2028 election, is returning to the bread and butter issues of how voters are struggling with inflation and feeding their families.

She said the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies and how the Trump administration has deployed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is another key issue. 

“It’s working for Ossoff.

“Then there’s another sort of darker psychology in there that had to do with Donald Trump getting support from a lot of younger men this cycle. That is, maybe men are sick of moral superiority, especially coming from a woman, right? From Kamala Harris… maybe. Men are like, ‘you know what? I’m flawed. I cuss, you know? Yeah, I like, you know, women with big boobs. You know what I mean? And so it is meeting people where they are with their own humanity… in a reasonable way. And I think that what Ossoff and Newsom are doing is part of that psychology.

“It works. Like when I saw Newsom fight back, even though I knew it was like gratuitous and stupid and probably grade school playground stuff. But you want to see that fight when you see such a bully in the White House.

“All of that kind of psychology I think now is coming into play. You have to be very careful with it because it’s very easy for that to go awry and to backfire on you. I think Newsom has been able to wield it well. Ossoff so far has been wielding it well. And I think it’s worked for them. I’ve studied this from the language that they’re using, they always tie it back to ‘why does this matter to you?’

“What this Republican president has given us is the Iran war… a war of choice. No one wanted it, no one needed it. He is trying to make the case that he’s making people safe and no one’s buying it.

“Because he chose to go to war, the country is now spending billions of dollars a day. we just surpassed $40 trillion on our deficit. that’s a really good talking point for Democrats now as well.”

Maria Cardona said Jon Ossoff has used his attacks on Donald Trump to highlight the struggling US economy. Photo: Finn Gomez/Getty Images)

She added: “That has absolutely enabled Democrats to use these other strands, the culture of corruption, the chaos, the cruelty. One other thing is immigration… the issue of ICE. The ICE raids, the immigration raids, also are connected back to the economy. What we’re seeing now is that we are in a huge deficit when it comes to healthcare workers, agricultural workers, service workers. What do all those industries have in common? They all rely on immigrants.

“Whether they were documented or not. It’s become so horrible that even people who are here legally are choosing to self-deport because they don’t want to get caught up in the raids. Democrats have been able to use all of these strains and loop it back to the issue of affordability. They’ve been doing it brilliantly, which is why they’re winning so many elections. It’s why I am confident we’re going to take back the House. And I grow more confident, not complacent, but more confident by the day that we’re going to be able to take back the Senate as well.

“What we’re seeing in the numbers now is voters have already swung back to the Democrats for those two reasons, the economy and on the issue of immigration.”

Maria Cardona will appear in conversation with Dr Stacey L Connaughton on Saturday, August 29th, at St Michael’s Theatre, New Ross, as part of the Kennedy Summer School. Further details: www.kennedysummerschool.ie.